Display topics from previous

Sort by

Brew Day Stories and/or Pics

I finally managed to get my second brew on using the MaxiBIAB technique (which is easily searchable via the internet). My first attempt was 18 months ago and I wasn't 100% happy with the results - I've since found out my hydrometer was reading high and that the brew was a bit thin probably due to a lower-than-intended mash temp. This time I was determined to get it right. Recipe... (am I allowed to link to Brewgr??) - still working on a name but I'm in to darts so somethng along that line (Big...

Last post

Quick post - I need to collate photos and stuff if I'm going to start a new thread (although don't want to hijack the whole site!!)

Went pretty well today - the new boiler was excellent and easily worth the money. It was able to maintain a good rolling boil with 26 litres in and wasn't even on max on the dial. The tap on the side locks open as well which is great for transfer of the wort into the FV. Additional use of a hopsock meant that no trub or hop debris was transferred. The only issue...

I've been steadily brewing since my last visits to here. Still not as refined and as scientifically accurate as I should be, but 9/10 of my brews (over 30 total now) have been lovely drinking.
Couple of classic mistakes;
-Milling my main malt of the bill, then measuring out my specialities without milling and chucking them straight in,
-Forgetting the entire hops schedule until the last 5mins of the boil,
-Hydrating a lager yeast and an Ale yeast at the same time on the same bench and using...

Last post

Hey Muggy

I actually cringed aloud (if that's a thing) when I read you missed a whole hop schedule and only realised with 5 x mins to go! ouch!

Doing side by side batches and throwing the wrong things in is a bummer. My outmeal stout become an FWHopped American Stout one day because of that

Earlier this week I attempted my first home brew using BIAB, and it was a whole lot of fun! This was my first round of brewing by myself, and although was challenging at some points, I had a blast!

I chose to make a wheat beer for my first go around for a few reasons (1. Its one of my favorite styles of beer and 2. the recommended fermentation temperature for wheat beer fit into the range of my basement temp).

I had found a basic recipe online that would yield about 5...

Last post

Good on you abi and congrats on your maiden voyage :champ:

I think you will have a good beer, it will just be a bit lower in alcohol than you expected (say 3.9% versus 4.5%). This is no problem at all.

Here's a few general notes for you...

Measuring - A stainless steel ruler makes measuring wort volume quite easy. If you are positive your kettle is level, you can take your depth or headspace measurements on the side. If not, take them in the centre.

I've been swallowed up in a project for the past few months and finally finished a few days ago. My neighbor is moving and gave me a conical fermenter, a SS 60L brew pot with outlet valve and a thermometer, and a 14 propane burner, along with some other stuff. I was itching to make a run at brewing with this new equipment and as my wife is out of town for a week, determined today would be the day. I decided not to attempt to use the conical fermenter for a lot of reasons. I may some day but not...

Last post

Well, I did go for it and bottled a few weeks ago. I didn't rack into a secondary. I let the beer sit on all the trub for about 3 weeks while fermentation finished, then bottled. The beer conditioned in the bottle for 3 weeks and then I cracked a bottle. The result was a nicely bittered beer, with no grass or hay taste, at least on my pallet. Overall I'm pretty pleased. The final results confirm - again - what so many brewers on this site have stated previously; it's beer, so once it's in the...

Warning: this is going to be a long post, with pictures - hopefully it will encourage beginners like myself, and entertain the old hands.

I was always interested in making my own beer, but the start appeared to be expensive and complicated, so I never really tried. Recently, I have stumbled upon the BIAB method, found this forum, and learned here about the mini-BIAB approach . This was it! I had nearly everything at hand, even a 19.5 L stainless steel pot which my wife is using for cooking...

Last post

Hi Scott,

I am not getting email notifications either - am kinda busy these days and can hardly follow the forum closely...

Nice to heat there are other photographers here too. Digital convenience beats old camera beasts for sure. For my fieldwork, I am now almost exclusively using iPad pro, which allows me to annotate photos with the pen on-the-fly. And a drone, that opens completely new photographic possibilities :-)
Nevertheless, give me a proper camera and a fast, large-aperture prime...

Got a sudden day off yesterday, so I decided just to go in and and give it a go. Even not understanding everything.
Was good to see how I`d go. Highlighted a few problems to iron out. Overall I am quite happy and at the end of the day
I am sure it will be better than the kits I was making.

Any feedback will be great.

Recipe was from BCS. American pale ale.

I didn`t have all the hops so I just used cascade and centennial.
I balls up the hop additions. Thinking about a different recipe, at...

Last post

Don`t how many of you guys have read this thread, (its worth reading) but I`ve been yeast harvesting because well liquid yeast is pricey.
Anyway this is just a follow on. I have now harvest the yeast three times and each beer I thought was perfectly fine, and wouldn`t hesitate
in doing three times with the one type of yeast. BUT I am still very much a novice, and I brewed the same beer- each time
I make tweaks to my methods and equipment. And my taste buds are probably not as tuned as my...

I have only ever brewed 2 can kits and have always been slightly disappointed. The brew would be OK for my consumption but I would never offer a bottle to anyone else because deep down I knew that it wasn't up to standard. This is what has lead me to go all grain, I have never tried an all grain home brew before but it has got to be better than the kits. So after a number of weeks ordering bits and pieces online and asking for kit for my birthday it is now brew day. The tools made available on...

Last post

Here are the pics from yesterday. Looking at the beers today it seems to have got darker. Not sure why, any suggestions?

Yep mate don't take beer darkness in the fermenter seriously. Your yeast and time will change the beer a lot. You'll be amazed how what you siphon out will look a lot lighter. If you pour a pint and it's a heck of a lot darker than you were expecting then it'll be time to check your recipe but I'm betting that won't happen

So on my second double batch day I'd attempted I was a bit disorganised and short of sleep after recovering from illness.

Here are all the .. ahem.. challenges I confronted.

1 On the night before brew morning I was filling my kettles and was eyeing the sealed bags of grain from the LHBS. One should have been bigger than the other as one batch was for 26L and the other only 13L yet they looked bloody similar. I checked my Biabacus files vs the LHBS receipt and to my horror found I'd ordered...

I had a post a couple years back, and people liked the pictorial. I have updated my website and the previous link was no longer functioning.
So I am posting my BIAB pictorial, and the updated link.
It is a Kolsch from scratch. Enjoy:

I also edited the older post to have the new link.
Sorry if anyone could not find it...
Jerry

Last post

Yes,
The pool filter has a diversion valve to use to empty the pool a bit after it rains, or to lower the water level for servicing. That has a standard hose valve and bib on it.
So while pool filter is running, you can use that hose bib just like a garden hose, only drawing water from the pool.
Then the water routed through the copper cooling coil is rerouted back into the pool instead of down the drain or into the street. ;)
Jerry

Sat, went to local brew store ,crushed my grains and got everything needed . Sunday grabbed my RO . Daughter had volleyball practice Monday at 8 am so I can get my mash going, pick her up , mash would finish 30 minutes later.. :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: Pulled everything out , WHOOPS ...........No gypsum , no calcium chloride , just epsom salts... Using RO water .OF COURSE, all the home brewing stores in my area (6) are closed on Monday.. Tuesday was annual dad / daughter fishing day with...

Last post

Richard....5 daughters ....#4 at FSU ... YEP we were rabbits , even in our 40's... :lol: :lol: :lol:
Scott... yep all those days I thought were over are now coming around again with a different daughter. UCF is actually a good school...not terribly far from me. I'm a mechanic so if they need help , let me know. Usually have everything on hand , but went braindead and did not be anal like normal & triple check to make sure.. Dad/daughter fishing was fantastic though.

Just writing about my first experience with BIAB. I have been brewing with friends (Brew Bros Charlie and Darran) for 3 years and 13 brews. We have gone from kits from a very dodgy (and sadly now closed) shop (it was like something out of Royston Vasey) to brewing extract and partial mashing. However after attending a local homebrew club and seeing the quality of their all grain brews it was time to take it to the next level.

We used the BIABacus and All...

Last post

Nice post Brew-Bro-Kev

Sugar doesn't leave the kettle during boil (unless you spill it) so you may have had a weaker wort, but more of it. Would need volume info to work that out though.

It is very international here so I don't think the Royston Vasey reference would mean much :)
Just don't ask for the special :lol:

I've been brewing nothing but fwk's for the past two years and the thought of going to All Grain seemed to daunting not only from the time perspective but also the equipment. Then I started reading more and more about biab and figured a alreadybhad everything I needed bar the keg to make a keggle. After a quick search I came across an old powers brewing 40 litre last week and it was job on. I set about making a pretty primitive keggle but like I said I already had the rest of the gear so worst...

Last post

Thanks for more great advice. I thought after the fact it may have been a little high temp wise and from more reading I've realised it wasn't doing the brew any favours. I've bought a thermometer to fit to the keggle to try get a better idea of steep temps. I did stir/agitate it during the 60mins and also checked the temp several times and it seemed to be around 68 so thought I was on the right path. As for the pic, it was only a sample and can't wait to try it in 7 days to see how it is,...

ok, I am new to BIAB, been along time 3 vessel, but when designing my new tower I embraced BIAB

here is the problem, I missed my OG goal by >006 points, five gallon batch, that with a 5.2 ph

using 9 pounds of 2 row, and 2 pounds of rye malt, I expected a 1.056 after boil gravity

I mashed at 122 for 15, then t0 150 for 60

ok it is a blonde rye for summer lawn mower days drinking, I lifted the bag, sparged and then did a good squeeze

but still left >006 in the grain bag. 2 points I can live...

Last post

Yep, if your kettle isn't large enough to full-volume mash then you will have to sparge or top up the kettle pre-boil*. Your kettle wasn't large enough so, it wasn't your decision to sparge that worried me, it was your decision to sparge until your Volume into Boil matched the BIABacus estimate in Section K.

While we don't have your pre brew day BIABacus, I'm pretty sure that you either didn't fill out Section W before brew day or, if you did, then you did not use the same volume of water that...

I just finished a almost perfect brew day. Three gallon biab kit from Northern Brewer, (Oatmeal Cookie Brown Ale). (Almost the last of these kits. Very soon, I'll only use the recipes from Brewing Classic Styles, as Scott had recommended several times).

After I had done my mash by the book, hovering around the kettle, I realized that my thermometer was flaky and had been reporting that the mash was 10 degrees (Farenheit) hotter than it really was, therefore, it was 10 degrees cooler than it...

Last post

I love it......Nottingham is scary.........
I have used it, but prefer London for my English ales
that said, I have a friend (?) on the street over who loves Nottingham, but he watches real close and kills fermentation when it hits his goal. I have asked him why and he likes quick fermentation, is retired so he his time to watch his beer closely and loves the esters of Nottingham. As long as he keeps under watch he can kill it when he hits the level he wants
bit to much work for me when I get...

Good question on the pulley. I did buy one just in case. But I found this tray in the BBQ section of Home Depot. It fit perfectly. The handles and corners act as support. It still was a bit of a lift, but not that bad.

Well this brew isn't going to be as I desired, but it will be what it will be and I can accept that. I was trying for a Kolsch but my mash temps got out of control while I was out refilling the propane tank. I ended up at a FG of 1.022 as opposed to 1.011. Ouch. But that's not the end of it. While bottling my 47 46 bottles of beer (I still haven't started kegging yet... though I might start soon) one bottle shattered as I was capping it with my bench capper. I now have two bandaids on my right...

Last post

Embrace the bottling, caress and love your bottles and they shall love you back.
Slow down and enjoy.

I'm starting a new topic to keep track of my brewing efforts, since the first one had a rather unoriginal title and first brew day story isn't really what it's about anymore. So, right now I'm wrapping up the brew day for my special after-wedding (my own) bohemian pilsner. I'm calling it Svatý Václav - Svátebný Ležák 12° . Translated to English, this would mean Saint Venceslas - Wedding Lager . And it is supposed to be 12 plato, like a proper...

Last post

Speak of the weather...

When I started this brew, it was a very sunny and calm day. Beautiful and warm, spring was in the air. Heating the strike water was extremely quick and I almost overshot it. Then the mash was uneventful, although I had a bit of a harder time than usual when I was squeezing the bag. But when I started with the boil, of course an annoyingly strong wind came out of nowhere. It was messing with my burner left and right, but with the patented impromptu wind shelter (made of...

Brewed Jamil's Ruabeoir Irish Red yesterday, which was my 2nd BIAB brew. Day went well, but I missed my gravity targets both GIB and GAW. I lost 10F @ 70 min into the mash & refired the kettle to bring the temp back up. I want to find a better way of insulating the kettle during mash to reduce the temp loss. Attached is the BIABacus file BIABacus - Ruabeoir Irish Red scaled to zman kettle.xls for review and any insight into why I am undershooting the gravity. I did not adjust the gravity...

Last post

I agitate really well with potato masher when first mashing in

wrap with old sleeping bag.

I use a paint stirrer which looks much like an oversized potato masher, it works brilliantly and the length is spot on for my urn depth, however my search continues for a Stainless steel version.

+1 on the sleeping bag. I've never had an problems with using one and only lose about 1dC over a 60-70min mash. Plus when I go camping I get to enjoy to aroma as I drift off to sleep. :thumbs:

I finally had my first brew day at the new house. 10 gallons (VIF) of 1.063 porter and 11g (VIF) of 1.044 session IPA, nailed both numbers on the dot. Thanks again BIABacus (and Ward Labs).

Here is the detached garage/barn that is now my brewery .

I don't have it pictured, but there is a huge exhaust fan on the wall. The previous owner used this particular garage bay as a paint booth for cars. If my camera panned up, it would be right behind the kettles on the wall. It's a serious fan,...

Last post

I'm gearing up for another brew day very soon, probably within a month or so. The past 2 months have been very puppy-centric ... so no brewing for me at all. I have also been kayak shopping for an upcoming trip. Work travel before that as well. Hard to believe it has almost been 6 months since my last brew day.

I'll have lots of help, so I'm going to run 4 kettles ... all with a basic APA/IPA recipe. (It could be easily called either, but it fills the APA slot in my lineup).

I thought I’d share the story of my first AG brewday, I’ve made some kits and several partial mashes topped up with extract before but this is my first fully all grain brew.
Firstly thanks to Mad Scientist and Shorepoints for their help with the recipe -
Not sure biabacus exactly reflects my methods are processes but I’ll attach it at the bottom for information and feedback.
I should point out to start with that my equipment’s not massive (no that’s not a euphemism), so I’m doing my take...

Last post

I did read the link you gave to mini-BIAB above and it looks like you mostly followed that procedure. :salute: There are some volume discrepancies between your BIABacus file and post but you measured the Specific Gravity at 1.070 as your OG so things worked out well enough. You will get beer after waiting through fermenting and conditioning times. Please post again later and let us know how it turns out. :luck:

thought I'd share my first ever brew day here. And it was a BIAB as well, surprise...
Anyway, here's how it went. I selected one of the simplest recipes from Brewing classic styles - the ordinary bitter. The original intent was to brew on my stovetop on a new 30 cm kettle that I scored on a sale, so that I could keep equipment expenses minimal, while I got my bearings around the brewing process.
As with many good intentions...
It turned out the ceramic electric stovetop in my flat is...

Last post

Head over to my Bejkee's balcony brewing blog, for a nice dose of alliteration and additional brewing adventures.

Brewed NRB's All Amarillo on 1/3, kegged on 1/16 and pulled the first pint today. As noted in an earlier post, I'm not confident on my pre-boil and post boil gravity measurements, but it's drinkable with good aroma. It's still settling out after adding gelatin yesterday & not fully carb'd.

I brewed NRB's All Amarillo on 1/3/17. Overall the experience was positive, although there's room for improvement. I hit my volume targets :clap: but missed the gravity estimates :sad: , although there's an issue with the temperature I took the measurements at, which I will correct on the next brew. Not knowing exactly what to expect, I was surprised at how well it went. :thumbs:
The beer's been in the fermenter for 11 days and has reached a final gravity of 1.010. I'll transfer to a...

Last post

Cart materials are from 80/20 Inc in Columbia City, IN. It's 1515-Lite t-slot aluminum extrusion, cut to my specs, counterbored for anchor fasteners connecting the legs & crossmembers, with legs tapped for threaded casters. Strong technical support from them while designing, good customer service & 2 day turnaround on multiple orders, as the project morphed after I got started. It was designed so each section could be at a different height, so if/when I might go electric, I can raise the kettle...

Its been a very snowy winter here so far, started warm which means a metric sh!t ton of lake effect snow from Lake Superior. Been pretty chilly for the last month too and Ive been so busy plowing the driveway daily, shoveling the roof, and doing the holidays thing that I haven't brewed in over a month. Pretty rare for me, and the fridge is starting to look a little empty for my liking, so I was glad when I saw it was supposed to be a balmy -1 C today.
Concocted up a sort of brown ale like...

Last post

Made the sleeve myself. Had some metal flashing left over from when I redid the roof on my house, unfortunately it was in several pieces which is why it's so unsightly :) Don't have a rivet gun, just used small nuts and bolts. It definitely improved my heating time, and now my burner never blows out when it is windy. Only thing I have to be careful of is if the bag hangs too far down over the outside edge of the pot it can scorch, especially if it is soaked with wort. Had it happen when...

Forum permissions

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum